A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said.

She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.

"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva told The Associated Press.

Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed. They had been called to the home after a caretaker there called and reported that the man in wheelchair was causing a disturbance.

The owner of the group home, John Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle that the man had a history of mental illness and had been living at the house about 18 months. Garcia said the man had told him that he lost a leg above the knee and all of one arm when he was hit by a train.

"He sometimes would go off a bit, but you just ignore it," Garcia told the newspaper.

Silva identified the officer as Matthew Jacob Marin, a five-year veteran of the department. He was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard in all shootings involving officers.

This brings tears to my eyes and boiling anger. My sister lives in a group home for retarded adults and some of them have serious emotional and anger problems. I just cannot imagine that any police officer called to a group home for a disturbance would shoot a man in a wheelchair with only one arm and one leg.

When the SHTF, the cops will not be the good guys, my FRiend. Who do you think put the Jews in the boxcars? Who rounded up the Soviets that were sent to Siberia? It is the police of the Regime.

Overhere[the U.S.] the police are agents of the State. We[Conservatives,Christians, Veterans]are now considered enemies of said State. But, but, but,... we are not being rounded up and arrested yet. No, but obama is working on issueing Executive Orders to do that. Congress has given him the authority to do so.

A guy mauled by a train is either a railway worker, a stupid drunk or someone trying to hobo a bit.

Either scenerio, I see the guy to be maybe 30's or so.

How pissed off deranged could a guy be (that hadn't had any or much mental therapy to deal with the loss of what I'm sure the guy considered his life) and especially when the owner of the group home (not known for re-hab) says, "Yeah, he flips out every now and then.

Y'call a doctor for a shot in the arm ... not one in the heart.

Just my tuppence worth.

14
posted on 09/23/2012 5:59:33 AM PDT
by knarf
(I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)

1) LEOs often function in the mode of predators, spending their day looking for trouble and conflict, as part of their job, their “prey” being lawbreakers. But with this comes other characteristics that apply to predators. One being that it is a very bad idea to “back one into a corner.”

2) A lot of LEOs just adore Tasers, because guns only have three modes: in the holster, brandished, or being fired as a lethal weapon. But many situations are far more complicated than that, and really do not rise to the level of the use of lethal force, *except* that there is no alternative.

It all goes back to lawyers. Cops are purposely trained to kill so there’s only one story told in the court room. If this one leg, one armed man survived the John Edwards types would have pushed him in his wheelchair in front of a jury of Democrat-ticks, and been out shopping for Gulfstreams that afternoon.

Far from being a foreign policy wonk, I wonder just how do we fix or at least get on the right track our foreign policy after we rid ourselves of this politically driven "foreign policy" team of misfits and ignominious clowns...

Mitt Romney besides having a economy domestic nightmare to try and fix he also has the "fix" our image and geopolitical position in the world...

Personally, I think the way to fix it is a three fold approach:Cut off ALL funding to any country that harbors Islamic fundamentalist...Don't like America, try feeding your people or filling your Swiss bank accounts with nada..Close ALL diplomatic consulates or embassies in same country...The USA is the most influential country on the planet...try using our leverage though back channels and see how much you pay for it...Drill, Drill, Drill... that tells the oil producing countries we will cut you off at the knees...try selling camel dung and sand fleas in ten years...

34
posted on 09/23/2012 6:27:04 AM PDT
by Popman
(In a place you only dream of Where your soul is always free)

dont call the coppers who are high on steroid rage, unless you want someone hurt or killed

If your neighbor's dog is barking too much just call 911. The puppy shooters will take care of it. I wonder how many women these days arrange "blue divorces" by purposely driving their husband into a rage then dialing 911.

You’re absolutely right, the guy in the wheelchair was almost certainly mentally unbalanced, or else he would not have gotten hit by a train. Sitting in his own feces in wheelchair in a group home probably did not improve his disposition. I suppose the cops might have used night sticks or tazers, but I wouldn’t want to second guess them as quickly as most of the posters here.

There are a lot of messy situations in life and we leave it up to the cops to clean a lot of them up. It “behooves” us not to jump to judgments about incidents about which we do not know the facts and did not witness.

I would say that an average CCP holder has more restraint when it comes to ‘pulling the trigger’ than today’s LEO- naturally not all, but the ones that get ‘scared’ when a dog snarls at them.
Maybe it is because WE are held to 100% accountability while the ‘average’ LEO has no restraints since he has the ‘law’ behind him.

Of course there are several reasons for the rash of ‘unqualified’ LEO types, ‘equality, affirmative action, unreasonable restrictions/laws etc’.

Give our Military 20 years of drumming the ‘anti-gay, anti-female’ youth out and you(we) will be stuck with a military that is basically run COMPLETELY by pols and do nothings.

When I enlisted at 17 it was to get away from the ‘sissy boys, mothers, sisters etc etc’.

Also our ‘sensitivities’ were harmed when the police used to basically hire former Military types....that corps (police) started going to hell when the ranks were opened to all, regardless of sex/size/etc and then they started requiring college credits.

I just can’t picture ANY police from the 40’s, 50’s 60’s just sitting around and letting a Va Tech or Columbine situation happen, some ‘hero’ (maybe self named) would have stormed the building and tried to end it, not wait for teams of Ninja Shock Troops .... and ‘trained sociologists’ to either talk them down etc....

45
posted on 09/23/2012 7:26:04 AM PDT
by xrmusn
(6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")

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